James Dean - biography

“Being a good actor isn’t easy.  Being a man is even harder.  I want to be both before I’m done.”

“Being an actor is the loneliest thing in the world.  You are all alone with your concentration and imagination, and that’s all you have.”

“Studying cows, pigs and chickens can help an actor develop his character.  There are a lot of things I learned from animals.  One was that they couldn’t hiss or boo me.”

“The gratification comes in the doing, not in the results.”

“To grasp the full significance of life is the actor’s duty; to interpret it his problem; and to express it his dedication.”

“To me, acting is the most logical way for people’s neuroses to manifest themselves, in this great need we all have to express ourselves.”

“To my way of thinking, an actor’s course is set even before he’s out of the cradle.”

“When an actor plays a scene exactly the way a director orders, it isn’t acting.  It’s following instructions.  Anyone with the physical qualifications can do that.”

“I also became close to nature, and am now able to appreciate the beauty with which this world is endowed.”

“Death is the only thing left to respect.  Everything else can be questioned.  But death is truth.  In it lies the only nobility for man and beyond it the only hope.”

“Death is the only.  inevitable truth.”

“Dream as if you’ll live forever.  Live as if you’ll die today.”

“If a man can bridge the gap between life and death, if he can live on after he’s dead, then maybe he was a great man.”

“I think the one thing this picture shows that’s new is the psychological disproportion of the kids’ demands on the parents.  Parents are often at fault, but the kids have some work to do, too.”

“The only greatness for man is immortality.”

“An actor must interpret life, and in order to do so must be willing to accept all the experiences life has to offer.  In fact, he must seek out more of life than life puts at his feet.”

“Trust and belief are two prime considerations.  You must not allow yourself to be opinionated.”

“But you can’t show some far off idyllic conception of behavior if you want the kids to come and see the picture.  You’ve got to show what it’s really like, and try to reach them on their own grounds.”

“I want to be a Texan 24 hours a day.”

“Only the gentle are ever really strong.”

“There is no way to be truly great in this world.  We are all impaled on the crook of conditioning.”

James Dean has appeared in the following films:
Fixed Bayonets! (1951)
Sailor Beware (1952)
Has Anybody Seen My Gal? (1952)
Trouble Along the Way (1953)
East of Eden (1955)
Rebel Without a Cause (1955)
Giant (1956)
One from the Heart (1982)
James Dean: Forever Young (2005)